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Peak Cluster carbon capture project ‘could boost hundreds of jobs’

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Isaac Ashe

BBC News, East Midlands

Wesley Kristopher A cement works in the Hope Valley on a misty morningWesley Kristopher

Thousands of jobs could be created across Derbyshire, Staffordshire and the North West, Chancellor Rachel Reeves says

A project to develop a pipeline to capture carbon emitted by cement and lime factories in the Peak District and bury it below the Irish Sea will create hundreds of jobs, Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said.

The pipeline will be created to transfer carbon dioxide (CO2) from Derbyshire, Staffordshire and the North West to be stored in the depleted gas fields off the coast of Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria.

Reeves said the £59.6m project would modernise the cement and lime industry, create jobs and deliver “vital carbon capture infrastructure”.

The government said the Peak Cluster project was the world’s largest cement decarbonisation project, and would create about 300 jobs.

A further 1,200 temporary roles will be created during construction of the pipeline, the government said, while more than 2,000 jobs in cement and lime production will be “supported” by the plan.

In total, the Peak Cluster and Morecambe Net Zero carbon storage projects “could create and secure 13,000 jobs”.

Carbon capture and storage is where CO2 produced from power stations and industrial processes is captured at source, rather than escaping into the atmosphere and adding to global warming.

Reuters Rachel Reeves stood in front of her house's black doorReuters

Reeves said the government was “modernising the cement and lime industry”

Peak Cluster is backed by £28.6m from the government’s National Wealth Fund (NWF), and £31m from private partners including Holcim, Tarmac, Breedon, SigmaRoc, Summit Energy Evolution and Progressive Energy.

She said: “We’re modernising the cement and lime industry, delivering vital carbon capture infrastructure and creating jobs across Derbyshire, Staffordshire and the North West to put more money into working people’s pockets.”

Cement is the modern world’s most common construction material.

But the cement and lime industries are two of the hardest industrial sectors to decarbonise due to the high levels of CO2 emissions generated in the manufacturing process.

Last year, BBC climate editor Justin Rowlatt said if cement was a country, it would be the third biggest source of emissions after China and the US, responsible for 7.5% of human-made CO2.

The Peak Cluster project will prevent more than three million tonnes of CO2 entering the atmosphere each year, the government said.

‘Clean energy transition’

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said: “This landmark investment will catalyse our carbon capture sector to deliver thousands of highly skilled jobs and growth across our industrial heartlands, as part of our plan for change.

“Workers in the North Sea and Britain’s manufacturing heartlands will drive forward the country’s industrial renewal, positioning them at the forefront of the UK’s clean energy transition.”

The NWF said it would commit at least £5.8bn by 2030 in hydrogen, carbon capture, ports and supply chains, gigafactories and EV [electric vehicle] supply chains, and steel.

John Flint, NWF CEO, said: “Substantial private investment, deployed at risk, will be needed to develop and deliver carbon capture projects across the UK.

“Through its investments, the NWF is well placed to support this, especially in hard to abate sectors such as cement and lime, to ensure a pipeline of projects is ready for deployment and the UK is able to meet its ambitious carbon capture targets.”

John Egan, chief executive of Peak Cluster Ltd, said the plan would help to secure “a sustainable future for the cement and lime industry”, and “benefit communities across the Midlands and North West of England”.



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Capgemini to buy WNS to boost its business process services with AI – Computerworld

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For Gartner vice president analyst DD Mishra, WNS’s investments in intelligent automation, analytics, and agentic solutions including its TRAC analytics suite and Malkom knowledge management platform will complement Capgemini’s existing technology and consulting strengths.

Sharath Srinivasamurthy, research vice president at IDC, pointed to the acquisitions WNS has itself made in recent months, including Kipi.ai, Smart Cube, and OptiBuy to enhance its data, analytics, and procurement stack and extend its proficiency in business process operations, said.

However, Rajesh Ranjan, managing partner at Everest Group, views the WNS acquisition as more of a strategic play rather than being focused on garnering more agentic tools or capabilities.



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Locafy Launches AI-Powered SEO Suite Targeting 40M Business Market

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Locafy’s AI Search Platform Powers Visibility Across Organic and AI Search

New Product Lineup Tailored to Local, National, and e-Commerce Businesses

AI-Powered Tools Designed to Automate Engagement and Accelerate Online Presence

PERTH, Australia, July 07, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Locafy Limited (NASDAQ: LCFY, “Locafy”), a globally recognized leader in location-based digital marketing, today unveiled its FY26 suite of AI-powered SEO products. These solutions, now commercially available following successful market testing, are designed to deliver measurable improvements across organic, AI, and marketplace search results.

Locafy initially outlined its AI-powered publishing roadmap in December 2024, promising to streamline content production and improve cost-effective online visibility for businesses.

“We are excited to announce that we’ve delivered on that promise,” said Gavin Burnett, CEO of Locafy.

All of Locafy’s publishing and SEO products are designed to drive visibility in search engines and, increasingly, AI-driven search tools and marketplaces. Recent research shows these optimizations extend across both traditional and emerging search platforms.

“We’ve evolved our technology to influence not only search engine rankings but also AI search results,” said Burnett. “Our platform helps position our clients’ websites as authoritative sources for high-value keywords, across local, national, and e-commerce campaigns.”

Burnett added, “We’ve also automated the creation of AI-search-ready landing pages, opening up a greenfield opportunity for scaled monetization. Our U.S. directory includes more than 9.68 million direct business listings, and our citation management partners publish more than 28 million business listings across our directories. Each of these represents either a direct sales opportunity or a chance to collaborate with partners using the data we already publish on their behalf.”

Locafy is focused on three primary solution categories:

  1. Online Business Listings
  2. Local SEO
  3. AI-powered engagement tools

Online Business Listings
Locafy continues to assert that online business listings form the cornerstone of successful Local SEO. These listings supply structured data that fuels automated SEO product generation. Locafy currently publishes more than 9.5 million listings in the U.S. and remains focused on partnerships with citation management firms and multi-location businesses. It is also exploring acquisitions of databases, directories, and citation management assets.

The Total Addressable Market (TAM) for the Local SEO solution in their key target markets of USA, Canada, Australia, and the UK is more than 40 million businesses.

“We currently host more than 63 million business listings worldwide, of which more than 40 million are in the U.S., Canada, Australia and the UK,” said Burnett. “However, our direct sales opportunity is more than 11.4 million, plus we have more than 28 million listings that we publish on behalf of partners, who can now connect to our Platform to automate the production of our Local SEO products for their clients.”

Country Partner Added* Claimed*
Australia 2,145,707 652,351
Canada 1,533,479 289,274
United Kingdom 3,458,205 802,003
United States of America 33,076,154 9,684,329
TOTAL 40,213,545 11,427,957

Local SEO
The flagship solution, Localizer, integrates listing syndication, AI-search optimization, review management, and Google Map Pack enhancement.

“We haven’t seen another product that combines these capabilities—at a price point starting around $690/month,” said Burnett. “Our customers get centralized control of reviews, consistent online presence, and high rankings in local map results, often within a short timeframe. Recent automation upgrades have made this level of value possible.”

AI-powered Engagement Tools
In addition to improving search visibility, Locafy has developed a scalable, cost-effective AI Voice Concierge that can serve as a virtual receptionist, product expert, or customer service agent.

“This is our first step into AI-enabled customer engagement,” said Burnett. “Our Voice Concierge acts like a digital team member—it can take bookings, provide answers, and interact 24/7. Just feed it your business documents and it learns. We record and transcribe every interaction, giving clients full transparency.

“This kind of capability once felt like science fiction, but it’s here now—and Locafy is helping businesses adapt and thrive in an AI-powered world.”

Over the past six months, Locafy has streamlined its product suite, automated key production processes, and validated product performance through live testing. With this foundation in place, the Company is poised for commercial growth in FY2026.

While the company still offers solutions for National SEO and e-Commerce, it believes the immediate opportunity afforded by its breakthroughs in AI Search represents a larger and more scalable revenue opportunity with far greater automation already in place.

About Locafy
Locafy (Nasdaq: LCFY, LCFYW) is a globally recognized software-as-a-service (SaaS) technology company specializing in local search engine marketing. Founded in 2009, Locafy’s mission is to revolutionize the US$700 billion SEO sector. The company helps businesses and brands improve search engine relevance and visibility in proximity-based search through a fast, easy, and automated platform. For more information, please visit www.locafy.com.

Investor Relations Contact:
Matt Glover
Gateway Group, Inc.
(949) 574-3860
LCFY@gateway-grp.com




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Apple appeals against ‘unprecedented’ €500m EU fine over app store | Apple

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Apple has launched an appeal against an “unprecedented” €500m (£430m) fine imposed by the EU on the company, in the latest clash between US tech companies and Brussels.

The iPhone maker accused the European Commission – the EU’s executive arm – of going “far beyond what the law requires” in a dispute over its app store.

In April, the commission fined Apple €500m after finding the company had breached the Digital Markets Act by preventing app developers from steering users to cheaper deals outside the app store.

Last month, Apple overhauled its app store rules to comply with the EU order to scrap its technical and commercial curbs on developers in order to avoid fines of 5% of its average daily worldwide revenue, or about €50m a day.

As a result Apple introduced new fee structures for developers using its app store. On Monday, Apple accused Brussels of making it deploy “confusing” business terms in order to avoid the threat of fines.

“Today we filed our appeal because we believe the European Commission’s decision – and their unprecedented fine – go far beyond what the law requires,” said Apple, announcing an appeal to the general court, the second highest court in the EU. “As our appeal will show, the EC is mandating how we run our store and forcing business terms which are confusing for developers and bad for users.”

Apple also accused the commission of unlawfully expanding the definition of “steering” – or the language and methods the company allows developers to use when guiding consumers outside its app stores.

The company said officials on Brussels had changed the definition by, for instance, not just focusing on whether app developers should be allowed to link to an external website, but also on whether developers should be permitted to promote offers inside an app.

Donald Trump’s senior trade adviser, Peter Navarro, has accused the EU of using “lawfare” against big US tech companies, describing the use of regulations against American companies such as Apple and Meta as part of a barrage of “non-tariff weapons” used for by foreign states against the US.

Henna Virkkunen, the European Commission vice-president responsible for tech sovereignty, said in April that the EU will not rip up its tech rules in an attempt to agree a trade deal with the US. In January, Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of the Facebook owner Meta, accused the EU of “institutionalising censorship” via its digital rules.

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Trump has set a 9 July deadline to seal a trade deal with the bloc – with the threat of imposing a 50% tariff on EU imports into the US if agreement is not reached.

Tom Smith, a competition lawyer at Geradin Partners and a former legal director at the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, said Apple “fundamentally hates” attempts to change its app store.

“The blunt truth is that it is worth spending a few million on legal fees in order to disrupt and delay the development of a more open app ecosystem, which is a market that is worth many billions a year to Apple,” he said.

The European Commission has been approached for comment.



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